Witnesses

While the Volturi gathered witnesses to watch their act of justice, the Cullens used the time to find their own. In the end, they received aid from a large group of vampires, among which a goodly number of covens, numerous nomadic vampires and another human/vampire hybrid, Nahuel, to demonstrate that Renesmee was neither an immortal child nor a threat.

Confrontation

Because of Alice's advance warning about the Volturi's hidden agenda to acquire more gifted vampires, the Cullens' allies used time to practice their powers in case an unwanted battle ensued. Zafrina and Kate helped Bella learn to expand her mental shield, which turned out to be crucial in protecting their allies from the mental attacks of the Volturi guard. Meanwhile, as more vampires entered the area, young local Quileutes turned into wolves, adding more members to the Uley and Black packs.

Bella's shield allowed a fair negotiation and trial of sorts to commence, rather than the Volturi's usual biased judgment taking place with those involved being incapacitated, and unable to speak in their own defense. After some discussion the Volturi concluded that Irina had made a terrible mistake and executed her. Tanya and Kate were enraged by Irina's death, but the Cullens and their allies were able to restrain them before they initiated a battle that would end badly for all involved. Eventually, while greatly saddened, they accepted that what Irina did was wrong.

Bella's power showed the advantage she gave to the Cullens and their allies as she blocks the Volturi's strongest weapons, inducing a sense of fear in Aro. In the movie, Alice showed Aro the vision of the Volturi's eventual demise if they did not leave the Cullens in peace.

Vladimir and Stefan of the Romanian coven were disappointed by the peaceful outcome, as they had hoped for a chance to attack the Volturi, but they did not instigate any hostile action.

Alice's vision

In the film Breaking Dawn - Part 2, Aro's plan to initiate the battle was thwarted by Alice's vision. Alice and Jasper arrived at the battleground before the fight began, surprising everyone—especially Aro. Alice told Aro that she had brought “proof” that Renesmee wasn’t a threat, to which Aro agreed to see. She then “showed” Aro her proof, but realizes that he was still adamant about a peaceful resolve. Alice then signaled Bella, who then sent Jacob and Renesmee on their way.

The battle begins.

Alice, seeing that Jacob and Renesmee were on their way to safety, delivered a kick to Aro’s head, sending him flying to the back of his party. This infuriated Aro and he ordered two of his guards to “take her away”. Caius ordered Santiago, one of the guards, to “get them”; referring to the escaping Jacob and Renesmee. Carlisle became infuriated at Aro taking Alice against her will and charged forward to save her; after easily knocking two of the guards aside, Carlisle was unfortunately beheaded by Aro and his body was burned by Caius. Carlisle's death immediately initiated the battle, with an enraged Edward leading both his vampire allies and wolves in the charge against the Volturi.

Alice captured.

Some of the Volturi’s guards and witnesses were taken out very easily. Jane, seeing that Demetri was losing his fight to Jasper, attempted to use her tormenting gift to give Demetri the advantage. Bella immediately shielded Jasper. Alec, Jane’s brother, noticed this and tackled Bella to distract her. Jane then took the option to torment and incapacitate Jasper again; Demetri, with the help of Felix, beheaded him, infuriating Alice. An enraged Emmett saw Alec charging at Bella and rushed over, brutally beheading him before throwing his body away. Alice then broke free of her captors.

Jacob and Renesmee.

Meanwhile, Jacob and Renesmee were being pursued by Santiago in the forest nearby as they ran.

Back on the battleground, Edward attempted to take out Demetri, but got overpowered. Seth killed a guard. Jane incapacitated him with her power, and Felix moved in to kill him, which shocked his sister, Leah, who howled in grief. Jacob heard her and became instantly overwhelmed with sadness. Jacob was distracted and it gives Santiago a chance to catch up and carry on his attack, but Jacob immediately snapped out of his pain and killed Santiago. He then successfully escaped with Renesmee.

Benjamin opening a gorge in the ground.

Benjamin, an ally of the Cullens, noticed that the Volturi's party was pairing up against the Cullens and their allies. Benjamin used his gift to create a large sinkhole in the middle of the ground, allowing his side to use it as an opportunity to kill off more of the Volturi easily. The Cullens and their allies do so with the help of the Uley and Black packs. Esme was nearly killed when a Volturi guard fell into the hole with her, but Leah sacrificed herself to save her and fell into the sinkhole alongside the guard to their deaths. Both Sam—Alpha of the Uley pack—and Esme were deeply saddened by this. Demetri pinned Edward to the ground until the ground beneath him collapsed, sending him into the sinkhole. Demetri—thinking he has finished off Edward—was taken by surprise when Edward suddenly emerged and, with a surprise attack, beheaded him.

Alice began to charge at a panic-ridden Jane, dodging and taking down many of the Volturi guard and witnesses along the way. Jane tried to use her gift only to see that Alice was being shielded by Bella. Realizing that she didn’t have a chance without her power, Jane began to run away but Alice caught up to her and threw her to a waiting Sam, who then bit off her head. Aro was devastated and infuriated by this as Caius, who was also infuriated at the Volturi's loss of allies, joined the fight: He attempted to take out Tanya, the leader of the Denali coven. Garrett, a nomadic vampire, came to Tanya's aid and kicked him flying toward Kate, Tanya’s sister. Kate used her shocking power to immobilize Caius, allowing Tanya to partially behead and kill him; thus, avenging their sister Irina whom Caius had executed earlier during the confrontation. Stefan and Vladimir, two vampires who greatly despised the Volturi, charged at Marcus, a Volturi elder, who openly welcomed his death as the two of them easily severed his body.

Aro, infuriated by his amount of losses, finally joined the fight. Edward noticed this and began to charge toward him, as did Bella. Aro delivered a blow that sent Bella flying across the battleground into Edward's arms. A brief two-on-one scuffle dazed him for a moment and Edward then attempted to kill Aro himself only to be outperformed when Aro turned around and tried to behead him. Bella attacked Aro again, saving Edward from being beheaded. With the help of Edward, she was able to finally behead Aro.

Bella sets Aro's head on fire.

Bella then grabbed a torch and set Aro’s head ablaze while, in the background, many of the Volturi’s leftover guard members closed in on both her and Edward. Aro’s head was consumed by fire while Bella and Edward were likely being killed by the Volturi's leftover agents.

The vision ended and we see a deathly frightened expression on the face of a very much alive Aro: everything that happened during the fight was simply a vision of what would happen if Aro initiated the battle. "Now you know. That's your future. Unless you decide on another course," Alice said to Aro in regards to his demise.

To give Aro the excuse to prevent the fight from commencing, Alice presented vampire hybrid, Nahuel, and his vampire aunt, Huilen, to give information about the existence of hybrids.

For the sake of self-preservation, Aro concluded that "there is no danger" in regards to Renesmee's existence and retreated with his coven members and witnesses, much to Caius' dismay.

Critical Reception

The second part of the film adaptation received notable praise for its battle sequence with many critics commending the "departure" from the novel and complimenting the "twist" ending itself. Regarding the "twist ending", both Meyer and screenwriter Melisa Rosenberg have stated that the concept for the third act of the film "came about at dinner" during the production of Eclipse; while Rosenberg was in the beginning stages of drafting the screenplay for Breaking Dawn. Meyer and Rosenberg went discussed countless ideas and wrote numerous outlines of the battle sequence, trying to figure out how to approach it while remaining faithful to the novel. Meyer herself, via her website, has said that the original intention was to "kill Edward"--though this was altered during the writing process as "fans would realize right away that it was a vision". At the premiere of Breaking Dawn - Part 2, Rosenberg said that the idea for approaching the battle sequence was to come up with something that "would cause all hell to break loose" for cinematic purposes as the novel's conclusion was said to be too "anticlimatic" by the studio. According to Rosenberg, the ending was very much crucial in the pre-production process as the studio was still debating on producing the two-part adaptation.